Archive for Soups

Well isn’t this fitting… my last post was all about cookies and sugar and this post is all about warm soup to help soothe your body while you fight the flu. Because alllllll that sugar leads to a defenseless immune system! I know better! The funny thing is, I think I only had like 5 or 6 cookies and the rest are in my freezer. I didn’t go crazy, so I know it wasn’t the few cookies alone that invited the flu into our home.

A few weeks back I remember shuffling my deck of Angel cards, asking for whatever message was meant for me that day. I pulled the “body care” card. I was frustrated and I thought, how many more vegetables can one person eat? What do the Angels want me to do? It’s funny how you can see things in hind-sight, because now I see what happened…. a lot of late, late nights studying for a new class I’m taking mixed with Christmas stress and late work nights (on school nights) doing other people’s hair. I’m taking care of everyone else so that they look good for the holidays and I realize now that the last person I was taking care of was myself. This is how it’s been for many years. Maybe this flu will shake some sense into me. I need to revisit the concept of Honor Self.

So for now it’s warm soup, warm tea and a lot of rest!

We have all heard people say that there is just something about chicken noodle soup when you are sick. Well, it certainly has NOTHING to do with the chicken. I can promise you that chicken holds no magic. On the contrary, chicken has very little nutritional value. It’s not the chicken, it’s the sodium via broth that our body craves to put us back in balance and the noodles give us energy to fight those nasty bugs. See? Isn’t it nice to know this? Now we have one less excuse. Being vegan, you can still have magic soup when you are sick, because it’s all about the broth…. veggie broth.

I remembered reading somewhere that miso soup is Alicia Silverstone’s favorite soup when she is sick. Alicia knows a thing or two about good, kind food, being vegan herself; but I couldn’t find a recipe for miso soup on her site. Perhaps it’s in her cookbook? I didn’t look really hard being so sick. I just came up with my own recipe and it turned out really good. I want to share my soup with my fellow sick warriors out there. Consider this a warm healing hug via bowl of soup. It’s fast to prepare so you can be back under the blankets in no time!

You know what they say? There is just something about miso noodle soup…

Ingredients

4 Cups Filtered Water

1 large Shallot, chopped

1 Garlic Clove, Minced

1 Cup of Mushrooms, sliced

1/3 Cup Organic Mellow White Miso

7 or 8 oz (1/2 block) of Tofu, cubed

Noodles (I had a package of Japanese style ready-to-use noodles on hand)

2 large handfuls of Spinach

Organic Soy Sauce to taste

Directions

In a medium pot, heat a little bit of water or vegetable broth and cook the shallots, garlic and mushrooms over medium heat until soft. Keep adding water if necessary.

*Notes: I never thought I would be so happy to have ready-to-eat noodles in my pantry. I probably would have never used these otherwise. The noodles just needed to be warmed up. If you have regular noodles, cook them in a separate pot and then add the cooked noodles to the soup. Also, I always have miso on hand because quite a few recipes in the “Forks over Knives” handbook and cookbook I like to use, call for it. If you haven’t tried those recipes, you should. Be sure to get organic miso!

The only thing that would makes this soup better is if someone else could make it for you! I just can’t help you out there… I had to make my own soup, too.